Van Halen cancels tour because of infection

Jaclyn is an Idaho native who currently lives in Milwaukee. Having worked in radio, TV and as a newspaper reporter, she is an avid pop culture and news junkie. She also has a passion for photography and cooking (but is still learning to ...

Band's temperment for once is not the cause

When the band announced a reunion, fans held their breath waiting for a fight. But this time a fight isn't what caused the canceled dates.

Van Halen announced they would be canceling their tour, but not for a reason you might guess.

“When Van Halen announced plans to make a new record with original frontman David Lee Roth, it was widely assumed the project would wind up getting cut short,” said Cinema Blend. “Everyone involved hasn’t been able to get along for the last three decades.”

So when they announced they’d be canceling all their Japanese tour dates, no one thought to ask why. But the cause was, in fact, not any disagreement within the band.

The band’s management has announced that Eddie Van Halen underwent emergency surgery for a digestive disease, which caused the canceled tour dates.

“His representative said Thursday that the guitarist had a ‘severe bout of diverticulitis,’ a painful condition that involves the formation of pouches on the outside of the colon,” according to the Associated Press. “He is expected to recover in four to six months.”

According to Cinema Blend, the disease is one that many older people have in some form. “Diverticulitis is a condition in which little pouches grow in the colon,” says Cinema Blend, on its website. “According to The Atlantic, particularly bad cases can block the bowels or rupture, requiring immediate surgery.”

As backward as it may sound, the news of the disease may actually be good news for the band’s fans, because at least it wasn’t the band's lack of trying, or commitment, that canceled their dates.

The rep for the band added that the 57-year-old musician should not need any more surgeries to recover. Even though the dates have been canceled, their Japanese fans are not completely out of luck as the band has said they will reschedule all dates they are being forced to miss.

Van Halen did get some things done before the cancellations though. A Different Kind of Truth, their newest album, was released in February.